The Blue Devils headed north to face off against Boston College this weekend but unfortunately for Duke, no one told the offense.
The Eagles swept the Blue Devils this weekend at a neutral site in Newark, Del., thanks to some sloppy defense and a lack of offense. The two teams were forced to play their series at Delaware’s Bob Hannah Stadium after a record amount of snowfall in Boston this winter lingered in Chestnut Hill, Mass. Duke dropped the opener Friday 6-1, Saturday’s contest 6-3 and the series finale Sunday 5-4.
“Tip your hat to Boston College, they played a lot better than we did,” Duke head coach Chris Pollard said. “They’ve got a good club, and I look for them to win a lot of games over the second half of the season.”
The series opener was marred by Duke’s continued inconsistency at the plate and a lack of composure in the field that ended up costing the team.
The Blue Devil offense was held scoreless through the first eight innings of Friday’s contest as the Eagles rallied to take what would be an insurmountable lead midway through the game. Boston College (11-13, 4-7 in the ACC) opened the scoring in the first inning when Duke ace Michael Matuella walked his second batter of the inning with two outs and allowed a single to the next batter, right fielder Chris Shaw.
Boston College was able to put the game away with a five-run fifth inning. After striking out the first batter of the frame, Matuella surrendered a walk, an RBI double, another walk and a single to leave the Eagles with a 2-0 lead and the bases loaded with just one out.
Matuella was able to get the next batter, left fielder Donovan Casey, to ground a ball back to the mound, but he committed an error instead of securing an out, allowing a run to score and the bases to remain loaded.
The Great Falls, Va., native struck out the next batter, but with two outs and freshman Ryan Day on the mound for the Blue Devils (19-9, 4-8), catcher Nick Sciortino doubled to the right-center field gap, clearing the bases and giving Boston College a 6-0 lead.
Game two was even more heartbreaking for Duke. The Blue Devils entered the top of the ninth inning down two runs and at risk of dropping the series to the Eagles but were able to find a way to level the score on a Jalen Phillips single with two outs.
But this was not a weekend during which luck was on the Duke’s side.
With one out and men on first and second, Shaw drilled a walk-off home run over the right field wall to give Boston College the 6-3 victory.
“We preach all the time that every day is a new season, and I thought our guys did a very good job of putting [Saturday] behind us,” Pollard said. “Saturday was disappointing in a lot of ways—not just that we lost a game on a walk-off—we didn’t handle adversity very well on Saturday, and we didn’t compete the way we’ve been used to competing over the course of this season.”
Just as they did Friday, the Eagles put together a big inning Sunday before the Blue Devils could get anything going at the plate. Duke starter Luke Whitten allowed three singles, a walk, a double and an RBI fielder’s choice, which allowed the Eagles to take a 2-0 lead before right-hander Sarkis Ohanian replaced him. The senior allowed an RBI single and a sacrifice fly before the end of the inning.
The Blue Devils tried to claw their way back with one run in the fourth inning and two runs in the fifth, but an error by first baseman Justin Bellinger and a wild pitch by Ohanian allowed Boston College to score what would be the game-winning, sweep-clinching run.
Pollard said two of the big things that his young team needs to focus on offensively going forward are avoiding strikeouts and getting the leadoff hitter on base. Duke finished with 26 strikeouts against the Eagles and got the leadoff hitter on just 10 times. Those leadoff base runners scored just five times.
There was one bright spot at the plate for the Blue Devils against the Eagles. Freshmen Peter Zyla consistently kept Duke alive offensively throughout the weekend, finishing 5-for-11 with one run scored, one RBI and only one strikeout.
Duke will hope to rebound quickly as they host Campbell at Jack Coombs Field Tuesday at 6 p.m.
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